Ricardo Pepi is officially back in the Dutch Eredivisie.
Dutch giants PSV has acquired Pepi on a permanent transfer from Bundesliga club FC Augsburg, both clubs announced Friday. Pepi signed a five-year contract with PSV, which will run through 2027..
“Ricardo possesses the qualities we look for in an attacker, the qualities of a PSV player,” PSV Director of Football Earnie Stewart said. “He has proven to be a goal scorer in multiple positions, and he works extremely hard for it. It speaks volumes that he accounted for such a large portion of FC Groningen’s goals.”
“With Luuk de Jong, we have the best header in the Netherlands, but with the number of matches coming up, you want to have double coverage in every position,” Stewart added. “Ricardo is still very young, so this transfer is also an investment for the future.”
Both PSV and Feyenoord showed interest in Pepi earlier this spring following his impressive loan spell with FC Groningen. The 20-year-old led FC Groningen with 13 goals scored in all competitions for the relegated side last season while on loan.
A former FC Dallas academy product, Pepi scored 16 goals in 59 MLS appearances with FC Dallas before moving to Augsburg in January 2022. Pepi made four appearances for Augsburg last summer before earning a loan move to Groningen for continued playing time and development.
“I am incredibly happy and excited to be here,” said Pepi. “I believe this is the right step for my career. PSV is a club with great ambitions, and I share the same desire to win trophies. I am a hardworking player who is willing to put in the dirty work. I prefer to have the ball close to the goal because that’s when I can score goals.”
Pepi recently featured in both of the USMNT’s Concacaf Nations League Matches in June, scoring once in a 3-0 triumph over Mexico. He also featured off the bench against Canada in the Nations League Final.
PSV finished second in the Eredivisie this season, earning a spot in the UEFA Champions League Qualifying Round.
England just win the U21 Euros going 6-0 with an 11-0 GD. Imagine if they hadn’t lost their best goal scorer in Balogun.
Luke de Jong is still likely to be the starter. Pepi is going to be in a Sargent like situation (when Puki was there) where he’s going to have to find minutes on the wing at times and come off the bench in the second half. I don’t think that’s a bad thing just want people to not freak out if it happens like that.
And with the addition of Noa Lang to PSV today, many of those winger minutes probably dried up.
“I don’t think that’s a bad thing just want people to not freak out if it happens like that.”
People are going to freak out. Count on it.
PSV have stated very clearly that Pepi is still young and that they got him as an investment for the future. This is code for he’s not starting over de Jong who they call the best header of the ball in the Netherlands..
USMNT fans will expect him to challenge for the Ballon D’or. They will call Earnie a traitor if he doesn’t and blame his relationship with the Reynas for it.
I’m definitely going to do that!!
Been a good transfer summer for our guys so far. Hope to see Turner get a loan, Dest find a good landing spot preferably a team that plays more with Wingbacks, McKennie land somewhere good…. Dortmund seems to be the spot, will Reyna get transferred? Brendo to Union Berlin. Haven’t had much talks if Adams…. would be weird to see him playing for Leeds in the Championship and Brendo was moved on loan. Musah to one of the Milan’s. Both AC and Inter are vying for his signature. Reggie Cannon seems to be on the move, and I would like to see Reynolds land somewhere good as well. Agustin Anello to Sparta Rotterdam.
Winter transfer may see even more movement. Ferreira, Vazquez, Cowell.
i didn’t realize this was literally stewart signing pepi. duh he would obviously like him. maybe sign some more while you are at it. still have to see if the coach uses him. but i think it’s a useful cheat code of sorts when our own coaches and owners and staff have some say in us signing abroad.
PSV has some history with Americans. Beasley of course being on their CL semi finalist team. Lee Nguyen was in their youth teams. More recently of course Chris Gloster (PSV II) and Ledezma from ‘19 U20 WC team. Dante Sealy had a two year stint there for PSV II. I’m sure I’m forgetting someone else. Probably didn’t hurt Earnie’s pitch that Pepi scored on them in the fall.
If Milan treats Pulisic like Gold, I will gladly take back what I say about Milan not caring for American players.
Now if they can just wrap of Musah and some other SerieA clubs grab McKennie, Balo, and Adams I can finally get my moneys worth for Paramount+.
The Eredivisie is probably the right place for Pepi to have started his European-based career. Augsburg overpaid the transfer fee for a young and unpolished product. The league has a proven track record of developing young talent, and this will offer a reset. Here’s hoping other young, emerging MLS talent and pursue this route or England’s Championship to gain experience and advance their careers.
The problem wasn’t that Pepi went to the Bundesliga, it’s that he went to Augsburg, a team devoid of talent and no one to service the ST’s. When Pepi gets service he scores goals, period!
FC Dallas has the right to capture a return on their investment with Pepi, and Augsburg agreed to the price. The reality is Augsburg management or their American owner misjudged. The agreements for most MLS transfers seem right, but this one was a bit overboard for a 19 year old in need of more coaching. If Ferreira or Cowell are next in the winter transfer, here’s hoping they have more control over their destiny and land somewhere in the Netherlands.
Congrats to Pepi! I want Dest to go back to the Dutch Eredivisie. I didn’t like how Barcelona and Milan wrote him off. His form is not bad, which was their excuse for not playing him. Those teams are just impatient and look down on Amercan players
If we are talking about wishes…I think Dest would be the perfect replacement for Rafeal Guerreiro at Dortmund.
I saw a rumor, Mckeenie is talking to Dortmund. I agree Dest would be a nice fit for Dortmund especially if Mckennie goes and Reyna stays.
“Those teams are just impatient and look down on Amercan players”
Most top level teams are impatient.
Barcelona and Milan have been impatient with a lot more Brazilians, Spaniards, Dutch etc., etc. than they have been with Americans. As far as I know, there is just Dest and Konrad, both of whom had fair chances to make their case.
Both of them just failed.
That’s two Americans vs countless numbers of other nationalities that Milan and Barcelona have axed.
And Milan just signed Pulisic and are said to be trying for Musah so they can’t be that prejudiced against Americans.
I would agree, doubt they would spend millions to acquire a player so they can look down on them. My fear for Pulisic is that he gets pushed off the ball to easily and while the English game may be more physical it wont be a walk in the park in Serie A.
You forgot Ben Lederman!!!! So three Americans, ok so you’re still right. I think Ben is still eligible he’s been on the bench multiple times for Poland but I don’t think he’s played.
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Balo possibly heading to Chelsea as well. So maybe these just aren’t the right fits not some underlying prejudice.
JR
I didn’t forget Ben. Everyone was so excited when we found out he was at Barca.
It’s just that Ben never played for the senior team like the other two did.
Dest is undisciplined and a sketchy defender. He’s fast and very skilled on the ball, and can get up the field and do damage and make things happen, though I wish he had 1/2 of Julian Gressel’s ability to deliver a quality cross. And when you’re talking professional clubs they definitely seem to like defensive solidity and do not seem to like a player who regularly spins the roulette wheel, goes freelancing on up the field, and causes his manager to reach for his Tums several times a game.
I like Dest. I also understand why he drives managers berserk.
do you think dest’s service gets better if he is turned into a wing attacker who doesn’t have to track back as much? or do you think he’s just destined to be erratic?
one thing i’ve noticed is even though they have had some success trying it, jedi and dest don’t invert and cut across or go straight to goal that often. there are a couple spectacular goalscoring counter-examples but when they go forward it tends to be fairly predictable old skill winger stuff with mediocre execution.
and that’s not even getting into my wish they just stayed home more often and did their primary jobs.
Overall, the best four games of Dest’s USMNT career were played in Qatar.
And that includes his comparative stinker against the Netherlands. He let his OLD buddy Blind blow by him for the second goal, which I thought was bad. Then I thought about Tyler Adams our defensive genius, also falling asleep on a goal.
Sometimes bad defending is contagious or maybe all our guys were just were gassed.
Nevertheless, they were the only games where you got to see the best of what a Gregg team can do in real live circumstances.
And I go by what you do when it really matters.
And based on those games Dest is the best right back we have, warts and all.
first off, dest went to ACM for a year which is just swept under the rug. second, way i see it ajax and barca, the two teams who will claim him, have an awkward problem of wanting a particular type of defense shy attacking wingback, then shipping 4 or 5 goals to a good team like bayern or chelsea, then blaming the back for not being some defensive machine. there is a reason pep has at some later stops tried compacting the fullbacks inward instead of sending them up the wide channels.
to me barca and ajax scapegoat players like him for being precisely what they wanted vs. ACM was judging him for not fitting their mold. to me he needs to either work on island defense or he needs to go play for some eredivisie mentality team that just sends the wingbacks up at all costs. either that or convert to MF or F. personally i’m not sure someone whose value is attacking up the line is suited to being a back in most systems, where they want that thing, you know, defense.